Grayfia looked up at the two above her as she proceeded to the area she needed to wait with Strada and Lint. Now that they narrowed down the area available to the other team, she was waiting to start fighting them once they appeared. The ones left on the other side was the queen, Diethelm Waldseemüller, one rook and one bishop. They suspected that the ones left were Nero Raimondi, and Griselda Quarta, Xenovia"s former guardian.As they waited the sounds of battle started overhead, meaning the entire battlefield was going to become dangerous soon, especially if Dulio activated his balance breaker. Soon there were entire areas of the battlefield turned to ice, or were set aflame. Right after this however they became alert, as the ones they were waiting for arrived.
"No way, we"re against teacher Strada?" Nero said as he looked at the man who taught him how to use the sacred fist. Strada smiled as he now had another chance to "teach" one of his former students.
"It is a pleasure to meet you miss queen of the red dragon." The man with a beard, Diethelm said. As Grayfia looked at him she knew she would need to defeat him swiftly due to his ability to heal. She then received a message through her system from Alex saying she could promote. One thing they discovered in these games was that the pieces Alex used on them wasn"t overwritten like the others, as his were unique to begin with. Because of this she could still use the promotion ability of her p.a.w.n piece, but they had to keep it quiet so they didn"t get in trouble for cheating. She then silently promoted to knight, as speed would serve her better against him because of his healing.
"Irina didn"t come this time?" Griselda asked as she looked at Lint, who simply laughed lightly in return. The six people squared up against each other, rook vs rook, Queen vs queen, and knight vs bishop. While keeping a wary eye on the battle happening above them, they started their own fight.
***
Alex stood atop the library watching as things unfolded. He was itching to get out there and fight Dulio himself, but was holding himself back from it. As the fights went on, any skysc.r.a.pers left from Crom"s earlier attack were soon knocked down, covering any remaining areas with thick clouds of dust, until wind from Dulio"s sacred gear blew it away. Soon there was a thump nearby as nova returned with both Elmenhilde and Irina on his back. They all looked up and saw that Dulio and Crom Cruach seemed to be evenly matched at the moment, so Irina asked,
"Should we go help him? It"d be better to have all of us going against Dulio at once if we can." Alex shook his head and said,
"It"s Crom"s fight, plus one of his conditions for joining my team was that we don"t intrude on his fights. He considers it an insult if someone tries helping him in a fight. Besides, even if he does get defeated, then Dulio will be exhausted so it won"t be much effort before victory, just be careful as those on their last legs are the most dangerous opponents." Irina nodded at his words, as it would be extremely embarra.s.sing if they had Dulio almost defeated, only for him to manage to get an attack on Alex and s.n.a.t.c.h away victory from them. At that moment the sounds of battle above them died down, as the two paused in their fight, presumably to catch their breath.
***
"You"re pretty strong joker, it"s truly an honor to fight you on the battlefield." Crom Cruach said as he looked at his opponent. Dulio laughed and replied,
"I can say the same to you Crom Cruach, it"s been a while since I enjoyed a fight this much. If you don"t mind my asking though, why did you join the red dragons team?" At this Crom showed a very rare smile, and instead of answering, asked in return,
"First tell me this, how strong would you say we are compared to each other?" Dulio was caught off guard at the question, and replied,
"I don"t know, I would say we"re either even with each other, or very close to it." Crom nodded and said,
"Indeed, what if I told you that each of my fights with the red dragon were almost instant defeats?" At his words Dulio froze, and his gaze turned to Alex, who was watching this fight from a ways away. Crom then continued talking,
"After he defeated me in the vampire territory, I left Rizevim and continued my training, but then he appeared before me to recruit me for the tournament. I challenged him once more and he said that if he won then I would have to join his team. I was defeated as easily as the time before that." Dulio was speechless at his words, and didn"t know what to think at his claims. At that moment,
"Joker Dulio"s queen, rook, and bishop retired."
He looked down and saw that the last of his comrades was also defeated, leaving him alone in the fight. Dulio then started laughing, and said to Crom Cruach,
"I guess this match is my defeat, even if I beat you then I have to face the rest of your team, including the mysterious Miss Sapphire and the guy you say is a lot stronger than you. But I don"t want to end our fight just yet, so let"s continue." At his words Crom showed a small smile once more, and didn"t say anything as the two restarted their match.
At the library Alex and the rest just watched with excitement at the fight continued above them, not caring about the collapsing ground around them. After what seemed like a long time, Dulio was covered with the light of retirement, and the announcement rang out,
"King Dulio has retired, red dragon emperors win!"